Eric Church: King of the Nashville outsiders

Don't take it personally, Twin Cities. Eric Church wasn't trying to single us out when he made us look like some kind of troublemakers.

But he did take it personally when scalpers got hold of tickets to his sold-out concert Tuesday at Target Center in Minneapolis. Shortly after they went on sale in April, he canceled 902 tickets purchased in violation of the show's sales limit — getting nationwide headlines.

"We've done that a couple more times, but we didn't publicize it. That time we wanted to send a message to the scalpers," Church said. "The other side will always claim it's capitalism and free-market economy — 'You should just charge more; your tickets are too low.' Those companies scalping, they're buying 400 and 500 tickets using fake identities. To me, that's criminal activity. It's not something I want to turn a blind eye to."

Church likes a good fight, as Rolling Stone put it in a cover story this summer. He admits to being competitive. How competitive?

"Very, very, very, very," he said by phone from his Nashville home. "I grew up playing sports. I got that ingrained. Even now that we've had a lot of success, I'm still driven in that regard."

Church, 37, projects a compelling odd-man-out edginess that stands out in today's "bro country"-dominated scene — "Darkness on the Edge of Nashville" was Rolling Stone's headline. Church punctuates his new album, "The Outsiders," with menacing metallic guitar. In concert, he stalks the stage — Tuesday's show will be performed in-the-round — with a high-octane, hiding-behind-sunglasses rebel swagger.

Offstage, though, he is kind of quiet. Or so he says.

"I never go out. I'm pretty reclusive. I'm very laid back," he professed. "Nothing like people would think if you were out in that audience and saw this guy beating his chest.

"When I put the shades on, it's like an athlete putting on a uniform. It is game time. On tour, we call it 'Chief Mode.' "

Despite four nominations for Country Music Association Awards this fall (including album and song of the year) and a few trade-association trophies on his shelf, Church tries not to play by Nashville rules.

In an era when country stars such as Brad Paisley and Tim McGraw crank out an album every year, Church waited three years before releasing "The Outsiders" as the followup to his bestselling "Chief." It is his most ambitious and artful album, and least commercial, although it made it to No. 1.

He threw in some metal, prog-rock, electronica, spoken word, Southern rock, a disco-y bass line, emotional trombone and even the Bruce Springsteen-like power ballad "Give Me Back My Hometown." And what other Nashville star would tell you he wrote a song after listening to a little Tom Waits and David Essex?

"The Outsiders" didn't come easy for Church. He wrote 120 songs.

He was concerned because, after releasing "Chief," he had gone from performing in obscurity to winning album of the year and being the most nominated act at the Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music awards shows.

"We were like maybe left of center, and I felt like center just shifted left. And I found myself in the middle of it," he said. "I wasn't very comfortable there, I'll be honest. With 'The Outsiders,' I wanted to make sure we got back out on that edge."

His songs tend to find bleakness but figure out a way to deal with it. In "Dark Side," he buries his past for the sake of his wife and child. Or he leavens sadness with humor, as in the single "Cold One," in which a woman left with his heart and his beer.

Some of these songs reflect changes in Church's life. He and his wife have a 2-year-old son. He is no longer a nonstop road warrior. Fatherhood has changed his writing, too.

"I was worried about that. I'm not a lullaby kind of guy," he admitted. "As an artist, I want to say fatherhood's made me a lot better. You see more depth in everything. I'm more mature and I'm more settled."

Kenneth Eric Church grew up in Granite Falls, N.C., population 4,700, where his grandfather was once chief of police.

In high school, he was a jock (basketball, baseball and golf) and class president for four consecutive years. He studied marketing at Appalachian State University, where he played in a roots-rock band. His fiancée's father offered him a well-paying office job. Instead, in 2001 Church headed to Nashville — and his fiancée broke off the engagement.

Five years later, he released his debut album, "Sinners Like Me," and got a tour slot opening for Rascal Flatts, who apparently fired him for playing too loud and too long. An up-and-comer named Taylor Swift replaced him, so Church hit the club circuit, playing six or seven nights a week.

His second album, 2009's "Carolina," yielded a couple of modest hits. Things turned around in 2011 with "Chief" and the chart-toppers "Drink in My Hand" and "Springsteen."

Church finally met the subject of the latter song in April when the Boss played Nashville. He had sent a note to Church after "Spring­steen" reached No. 1 in 2012.

"His kids had made him aware of it. Then he heard it and reached out to me. It was a long note," Church confessed. "That was a lot bigger cherry on top."

Meeting Springsteen was a spiritual experience, Church said. They talked shop. "I don't do any social media. I've never tweeted, and I don't do Facebook. Never will. He had been doing some of that. He's telling me I need to be doing social media. With the generational difference [between them], it was a bizarre conversation."

Springsteen had recently returned from a tour of South America. Church is interested in performing abroad.

"We sell music short, more so in country than any other format," Church opined. "I don't buy the mentality that 'This is American music and we have to keep it in America.' You have to play and invest and go to the rest of the world. Bruce was saying that, by using social media, music gets there before you get there and you've already got a seed planted.

"It's a great point. I'm still not going to jump on Twitter."

No, Church plays by his own rules.

Twitter: @JonBream • 612-673-1719